Financing for 3F Bond Authorization Projects

What's Next?

August 2019: The City's consultant team is performing field work including topographic and right-of-way surveys, geo-technical drilling, environmental investigations and utility locating. Coordination efforts are continuing with stakeholders, including the Union Pacific Railroad, Xcel Energy, etc. Updates regarding the progress of the projects will be provided here and on all the City's communication platforms.

Note: The grant-funded portion of the Ralston Road improvements--Wadsworth to Yukon--will begin in the fall of 2019.

Ballot Issue

In the November 6, 2018 election, Arvada residents approved Ballot Issue 3F for a bond issue to fund improvements to Ralston Road and W. 72nd Ave.

Voters Decide

The Colorado Constitutional provision known as TABOR (Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights) requires that voters must approve whether local government can issue debt--essentially borrow money. On August 27, City Council voted unanimously (7 - 0) to place an issue on the November ballot asking citizens to allow bonding to fund two capital improvement projects. Municipal bonds are commonly used by cities to fund capital improvement projects. Voter acceptance to allow bonding would NOT REQUIRE ANY NEW TAXES.

How Can the Projects be Funded with No New Taxes?

In 2018, the City will finish paying off a previously issued bond, freeing up $4.5 million in annual payments already accounted for in the City’s current budget. “Debt re-authorization” means voters agree to allow the money from the previous bond to be applied to a new bond whose funds would be used for the new capital improvement projects.

These two major transportation projects will require $79.8 million to complete:

The cost of the bond repayment would be $5.5 million per year. Because $4.5 million per year is already in the budget, and the source for the additional $1 million per year has already been identified, No New Taxes would be required to complete these two big projects.

Benefits of Funding Now

Time Saved

Funding the projects now provides citizens the benefit of two very needed road projects being completed sooner rather than later. If the re-authorization is accepted, the projects will be completed in five years. Building up the necessary funds to cash finance the projects would take approximately two decades.

Money Saved

Funding the projects now allows the City to borrow money at less than 3.5%, a much lower rate than ongoing inflation of road construction costs. In fact, if the City were to wait to cash finance these two projects, because of the time it would take to do so and accounting for inflation, the total projects cost would go from $79.8 million to $130 million.

Arvada's Commitment to Capital Projects

By charter, the City of Arvada is required to spend 60% of each $.01 of sales tax revenues on capital improvements (or toward the repayment of debt related to capital improvements). The $5.5 million directed annually to the repayment of funding these projects would contribute toward satisfying that requirement.

Contact

For questions about the Project Financials please contact the Director of Finance Bryan Archer, 720-898-7123 or barcher@arvada.org.

JavaScript Notes

The following descriptions of tools and resources is intended to help demonstrate how and why
JavaScript is used on this website.
Even though you do not have JavaScript enabled, you should still be able to access all information
contained on this site. To report difficulty accessing
information, or to report any issues using assistive technologies, please call 720.898.7886 or
e-mail webmaster@arvada.org

Libraries and Scripts

jQuery is a JavaScript library that allows you to take advantage of many features on this site. For more information, please see jquery.com.Modernizr helps older browsers to render modern web content well. For more information, please see modernizr.comTwitter Bootstrap is a responsive HTML, CSS, and Javascript framework. It helps this site to work well across computing environments. For more information, please see GetBootstrap.com.Jasny is an extension for Twitter Bootstrap. This site uses it for making tables and other componenets more interactive. For more information, please see Jasny.GitHub.IO.Bootstrap Accessibility by PayPal allows us to make this site more accessible for screen readers. To find out more, please visit PayPal.GitHub.IO. The main navigation on this site is a "mega menu". This script helps to ensure that the menu works well for all visitors. A CSS-only (Javascript-free) alternative is available.This script is intended to help make scrolling smooth. It is not necessary for browsing the site.A responsive menu is enabled with this script. It is not necessary for browsing the site.DataTables is a rich plugin for jQuery that makes it easy to enhance the display and use of tables. This site uses DataTables to make the Department Directory easily searchable and sortable. For more information, please see DataTables.net.This script is a plugin for DataTables.jCloud is used to make "tags" on pages more aesthetically pleasing. For more information on jCloud, Copyright 2011 by Luca Ongaro, please visit GitHub.com.This script is used to make drop-down menus more aesthetically pleasing. For more information, please see https://developer.snapappointments.com/bootstrap-select/.Lighter, copyright 2010-2015 by Kevin Sylvestre, is a lightweight tool that allows this site to present images in a modal or "pop-up" fashion. To see this script, visit http://ksylvest.github.io/jquery-lighter/.Lighter, copyright 2010-2015 by Kevin Sylvestre, is a lightweight tool that allows this site to present images in a modal or "pop-up" fashion. To see this script, visit http://ksylvest.github.io/jquery-lighter/.All business applications have special functionality. This script helps the applications to be easier to use.Auto complete on search.

Arvada.org works best with JavaScript enabled. For help enabling JavaScript, please visit
http://enable-javascript.com/.
Some features on this website may not work as intended without JavaScript.The City of Arvada uses Piwik to gather analytics on website use. No personal information is collected
during this process.